China values soft power and stands ready to fill the vacuum that Trump is creating.

Joseph S. Nye was professor emeritus at Harvard University and author of several books including ‘A Life in the American Century’.
Monocle June 2025

“It’s impossible for all humans to be good, so we will always need security.”
Roberto Cingolani, CEO of Leonardo, Italy’s largest defence company.
Monocle, May 2025

“Are the city and country really more unsettled, or do we cope worse? … Unrest is of all times but the reactions now are more hysterical and there is less and less room for dissent. That worries me.”

Femke Halsema
Mayor of Amsterdam
Monocle May 2025

“As an architect, your practice isn’t about personal expression,” he said. “It’s about responding to the realities of a place, a culture, a moment in time. You can’t just replicate old ideas – you have to respond to today’s conditions.”

Manuel Cervantes
Architect
Monocle on Design April 30, 2025

WE OFFER
PILATES
CLASSES DAILY.
THEY CONSIST OF
PIE & LATTES

Quote at the Sheffield Pie Cafe, Oxford

What they found was striking. Thirty years on, urban pedestrians were walking, on average, 15 per cent more quickly. Fewer people could also be described as “lingering”, from 43 per cent in 1980 to 26 per cent in 2010. There was also a decline in people forming groups on the street either preplanned meetings or spontaneous encounters. “People are now spending less time in public spaces and moving through them at a faster pace,” the researchers concluded.

Why are we walking so quickly?
Tom Vanderbilt
Monocle, April 2025

“In order for something great to come out, you actually have to put in the time, energy, sweat and tears,” he said. “We have all of these tools of convenience today but how are you going to learn to be a great designer if you take short cuts?”

Yves Béhar
Monocle Minute in Deaign
April 16/04/2025

AI and the Arts

It’s a tool. The creativity still lies in how you use it and how much culture, art and information you have ingested over the years. Our brains are the original large language models."

Emily Yang, Co-founder and artist, Shibuya. film
Monocle, April 2025

“Models force you to edit your work. With a computer, you can make objects as big or as small as you want. But with models, you actually have to make decisions.”

Architect Giancarlo Valle
Monocle, April 2025

“If we must live in a multi-order world, we need to imagine it as a mesh of relations, where everyone and everything matter, and their futures must not be dictated by the big powers. It is time to rethink how we govern and are governed today.”
ELENA KOROSTELEVA
Professor of Politics and Global Sustainable Development
Monocle, April 2025